Can Pete Crow-Armstrong Resist the Temptation to Try to Save the Cubs?

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of David Banks-Imagn Images

The 2026 Cubs would be a sub-.500 team without Pete Crow-Armstrong. He's been worth 67 runs relative to an average player, according to Baseball Reference: 41 as a batter, 10 as a runner, and 16 in the field. If you prefer Statcast's valuations, those numbers are 47, 7 and 27, respectively. Either way, the story is the same. If you insist on the value of clutchness and situational hitting, nothing changes, because Crow-Armstrong has been extremely clutch this year. His Win Probability Added (WPA) at the plate is a league-best 5.2; he also leads the majors with a 3.5% Championship WPA. He's been even better in big moments than in low- and medium-leverage spots. The Cubs are 84-68. Take Crow-Armstrong away, and they're no better than 76-76—and really, they're probably worse.

That's a heavy burden for any player to bear—let alone a 24-year-old whose intensity is just barely under control at all times, anyway. Crow-Armstrong's desire to win is pumped from his heart out to his fingertips with every beat, moving faster than his blood, crackling like electricity. It feels slightly but significantly different than even last season, when Crow-Armstrong was obviously and fiercely competitive but seemed to be motivated as much by proving himself and being great as by winning itself. This season, he's been so livid and disconsolate when the team is losing and so delirious when the team is winning that there's no mistaking the fuel for his fire. He wants this. He's made his first huge payday; he's all but assured of the MVP award; and he's quieted the doubters, if not the haters. What he wants, now, is for his team to rise to his level.

A few of them have, of course—or, at least, they've tried. Seiya Suzuki and Alex Bregman are having marvelous seasons, and the shape of their production suggests that they're receiving as much inspiration and intel from their younger teammate as he's getting from them. On the whole, though, this remains a bad team with an all-time great player papering over its flaws, and although Crow-Armstrong would be loath to characterize it that way, it's becoming clear that he knows just how badly the club needs him to be great every day.

Unfortunately (but also unsurprisingly), that has led Crow-Armstrong back into some old, bad habits. The grind of the season erodes players' plate discipline, anyway, but Crow-Armstrong is back in swing mode, in a way that feels much more like him trying to put the team on his back in every plate appearance than like him getting tired or going up there without a plan. One way or another, he's currently swinging as much as he did in 2025—something that hadn't been true at any point since the first few weeks of the season.

As you can also see, swinging so much has only dragged down Crow-Armstrong's production, despite plenty of continued hard contact and some home runs. For about 100 days, he morphed into a marvelously consistent and balanced offensive weapon, as well as a dynamic one. Right now, he's dangerous—but he's also gettable. 

This isn't about playing for stats. If Crow-Armstrong were thinking selfishly, he'd be swinging less often, trying to work a few walks and go steal the three bases left between him and the 40/40 club. No, he's swinging like crazy again because he can sense his team sliding toward the danger zone where they might even miss the playoffs—or, more likely, end up as the second or third Wild Card entrant and have to play the Wild Card Series on the road. He's trying to save the day. He's trying to be a superhero, and no player this side of Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge has been more up to that task at any time in the last decade.

Alas, baseball games aren't won by superheroes. They have to be won with depth, teamwork, and the slow accretion of good plays. Crow-Armstrong is keenly aware that his team can't produce that kind of win as consistently as it needs to right now. That's why he's trying to win games by himself. Unless they put up a basketball hoop behind second base, though, that's not an option that will be available most of the time. Crow-Armstrong has to rediscover his patience at the plate, and hope (if not quite trust; that would be too generous) that his teammates round into form in time to support his historic brilliance the way it deserves.

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